Management Bios

Trust experience. Choose NovoLink.

NovoLink was founded in 2000, by a management team with nearly a century’s worth of experience in the communication industry and a vision to become the first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider to deploy a fully IP based network. Capitalizing on their deep industry experience, the Company became one of the world’s fastest growing VoIP service providers, offering retail and wholesale long distance services through a global VoIP network managing over 2 billion minutes of wholesale traffic per year. Additionally, the company acquired operating assets based in Russia (IWL Russia Ltd) and a Concession to operate a telephony company in Mexico (Qualtel) in 2007. Over the last few years, NovoLink’s management team has expanded its VoIP capabilities to include a hosted High Quality Voice Network (Class 5) and several strategic software platforms including a Traffic Management Solutions, Least Cost Routing Engine, and extensive Route Management capabilities. NovoLink is proud of our leadership team and looks forward to the opportunity to serve our customers.

Ignatius Leonards

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Mr. Leonards is responsible for guiding the company’s technology portfolio and business strategy, finances, and international operations. Prior to NovoLink, Mr. Leonards served as President and Vice Chairman of CapRock Communications. He was responsible for growing the company from a Dallas based resale service provider to a regional facilities based CLEC serving five states. He led the construction and deployment of five Class 5 local switches and over 5,400 route miles of fiber supporting ATM, SONET, Frame Relay and DSL services.

Mr. Leonards founded IWL Communications in 1981, a company specializing in building turnkey Telecommunication facilities for the oil and gas industry with companies operating in remote regions of the world. Mr. Leonards served as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer from 1981 until 1998 and took the company public in 1997 (NASD: IWLC). In 1999, he merged IWL Communications Inc. with CapRock Communications Inc (NASD: CPRK), and helped build the company to $1 billion market capitalization prior to selling to company to McLeod Communications in 2001.

Prior to IWL Communications, he managed the Houston division of Bibbins & Rice Electronics, a regional Telecommunications service company. He earned an Industrial Electronics and Telecommunications degree from T.H. Harris Technical College in Opelousas, La.

Donald Frieden

President and Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Frieden is responsible for managing NovoLink’s engineering, operations, and sales organizations. Before joining NovoLink, he was Vice President, Mobile Solutions at Invensys (FTSE: ISYS.L) and responsible for integrating SAT Corporation, a company he founded in 1995, into the Wonderware Division of Invensys, after it was acquired in 2008. Prior to Invensys, he was President & CEO of SAT Corporation, which developed IntelaTrac, a market leading software and wireless solution deployed by many of the largest Energy Companies in the world to enable Mobile Workforce Management & Decision Support. Early in his career Mr. Frieden was as a Regional Director for BET Plant Services (FTSE: BET), a global onshore and offshore industrial service provider. He holds two patents in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag technology and co-invented the Universal Tag Formatting Schema, which provides a standardized data structure and communication layer for interfacing RFID technology with Manufacturing Execution Systems.

Mr. Frieden served on the FIATECH RT151 RFID Subcommittee for the Construction Industry Institute (CII), where he worked with researchers on various RFID and software development projects, including a project at the National Construction Automation Test bed (NCAT). Over his career, he has served on numerous boards and committees including the Council of Logistics Management, the Construction Industry Institute, CERA, MIT, FIATECH, the National Petroleum Refiners Association, and COMDEX. He attended the University of North Texas, and majored in Business Administration-Finance.

Sharon Brown

Vice President Finance and Administration

Mrs. Brown is responsible for the organization’s finance, administrative, and operational functions. She has over 15 years of progressive accounting and controllership experience in both public accounting and industry. She started her career as an auditor for Arthur Andersen, where she lead audit teams in the manufacturing, services, and enterprise industries on SEC engagements, including several IPO’s. Mrs. Brown worked at General Electric for seven years, where she advanced through FP&A and Controllership positions at the divisional level. She was responsible for the implementation of the division’s internal controls monitoring and SOX compliance, as well as the statutory compliance of multiple international subsidiaries. Mrs. Brown has also held Corporate Accounting and Controllership roles for publicly traded companies including American Residential Services and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR).

Mrs. Brown is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Texas. She has earned both a Bachelors of Business Administration and a Masters in Professional Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt.

Fernando Lombardo

Vice President Engineering and IT

Mr. Lombardo has over 12 years of experience in the Telecommunications industry. He is responsible for managing NovoLink’s network engineering, software development, and IT departments, as well as, promoting technology and innovative solutions to better serve our customers. Prior to joining NovoLink Communications, Mr. Lombardo was a team lead at McLeodUSA where he was responsible for the design and implementation of a large scale VoIP network allowing a regional CLEC to cap-and-grow its TDM infrastructure into a highly profitable IP-based voice network over a 25 state fiber optic network footprint. Mr. Lombardo started his career at IWL Communications, a provider of communications services to the oil and gas industry, where he started a CLEC business unit, which was later merged with CapRock Communications. While at CapRock he managed the built-out and expansion of the CLEC footprint into a regional tier 1 network, which was later acquired by McLeodUSA in 1998.

Mr. Lombardo attended the University of Louisiana where he received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (Cum Laude) and a M.S. in Telecommunications. He has also been published in IEEE proceedings and international conferences for his academic research work.

Nathan Skuse

Vice President, Carrier Sales and Business Development

Mr. Skuse is responsible for carrier sales activities and programs. He brings 13 years of telecommunications and technology sales and business development experience to NovoLink. Since joining NovoLink in 2008, Mr. Skuse has lead the companies new business initiatives, developed and launched successful retail and wholesale products, and continues to focus on the strategic alignment of customers and vendors. Prior to joining NovoLink, Mr. Skuse held the positions of National Sales Manager and Vendor Manager at iBasis where he managed key customer and vendor relationships. Previously Mr. Skuse held enterprise sales and account management positions supporting various voice and data products with WorldCom and Teligent.

Mr. Skuse attended Alfred University and received a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing.